The news comes as Australians have been given three months to opt out of the federal government's own national medical data base, My Health Record.

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The federal government is automatically assigning each Australian a digital health record unless they opt out.

The decision has stirred up debate between GPs, peak mental health bodies, hospital staff, privacy advocates and computer security professionals about the benefits these records provide weighed against privacy concerns for such deeply intimate files.

The system promises to centralise health records, allowing patient information to be readily available to various medical professionals across the country, and potentially saving lives by, among other benefits, alerting doctors of patient allergies and medications.

A major concern for some when deciding whether to opt their children out is that, while a digital health file can be cancelled when their children grow older, it cannot be deleted; the government says it will be kept for 30 years after a person’s death.

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However, after cancellation, the record will be made unavailable to health practitioners.